The overall mission of the Malaysian Prison Department (MPD), under the Ministry of Home Affairs, is to “nurture productive individuals through effective rehabilitation, a conducive environment and strategic integration” by establishing and operating detention orders, ensuring lawful detention, control and security, lawful treatment of prisoners, effective rehabilitation programmes and by ensuring the implementation of effective reintegration programmes for prisoners (Malaysian Prison Department, 2012b).
The MPD is organised in ten divisions, of which the Safety and Intelligence Division, the Inmate Management Division, the Transfer of Prisoner Division, and the Parole and
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Community Service Division are responsible for prison population management (Malaysian Prison Department, 2012d). While the Safety and Intelligence Division ensures all security conditions are met, the Inmate Management Division aims to reduce recidivism by providing effective rehabilitation measures, reducing the number of complaints against the system and providing adequate health facilities to offer medical treatment to at least 80 percent of the prison population (Malaysian Prison Department, 2012e). According to the MPD, its Inmate Management Division is responsible for the moral rehabilitation of inmates and providing for prisoner health, medical treatment, basic needs and social relations, within the Nelson Mandela Rules. To fulfil these functions, the Inmate Management Division has two subsections: the Rehabilitation and Treatment Section for educational and character development, treatments, religious and welfare matters and the Vocational and Industrial Section (Malaysian Prison Department, 2012f).
The Parole and Community Service Division aims to “ensure continuity of the rehabilitation programmes” and to regulate and develop the Parole Management Information System to facilitate the sharing of information between the MPD and parole officers, who are responsible for the supervision of parolees (Malaysian Prison Department, 2012d).
4.6.1. Offender Assessment
Offender assessment is carried out by the Reception Board, which interviews every inmate after their intake to consider arrangements for the prisoner’s training. It is also up to the board to classify prisoners by considering their age, character and previous history (Reg. 21) (Malaysian Prison Department, 2016). In addition to this classification, Regulation 34 of the Prison Regulation (PR) aims to facilitate the training, and reduce the risk of ideological or other contamination, of six categories of prisoner (convicted, prisoners who have not been convicted, young prisoners, first offenders, recidivists, escapees) (Malaysian Prison Department, 2016). Efforts made by the Reception Board are completed by the Discharge Board, which also interviews prisoners on admission, to offer treatment with a view to rehabilitation. However, the PR does not direct any interactions between the two boards on matters concerning prisoner treatment arrangements (Malaysian Prison Department, 2016).
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4.6.2. Educational, Vocational and Employment Programmes
Work is a general requirement for inmates within the MPD framework. Work has an important role within the progressive stage system and a direct impact on an inmate’s earnings. Payments are made according to grades measuring the inmate’s working skills, with promotion to a higher grade possible based on good behaviour and work progress (Malaysian Prison Department, 2016).
The type of labour offered within the prison is allocated by the Officer-in-Charge who must give first consideration to “suitable vocational training” for each inmate in accordance with their sentence, individual interests and capacity, and the disponibility of prison resources (Malaysian Prison Department, 2016). Along with work inside the prison, the MPD offers a Prison Workforce programme, with community service work activities whereby inmates can contribute to their social duty by maintaining public places. Furthermore, some prisons offer workshops to provide skills training to the inmates, such as carpentry, sewing, craft, welding or laundry workshops (MPD, n.d.). In addition, the MPD considers educational classes to be part of the rehabilitation programme but bases them as optional activities to be fulfilled during general leisure time.
4.6.3. Cultural, Physical, Leisure Activities
Inmates may engage in physical training and recreational games supporting physical as well as mental health. Furthermore, there are activities such as lectures, concerts and debates. General access to a library, reading and writing material are regulated by the PR (Malaysian Prison Department, 2016). Educational classes are considered leisure activities and can be fulfilled through correspondence courses as well as through voluntary teachers who visit and teach inmates on a regular basis (Malaysian Prison Department, 2016).
4.6.4. Religion, Ideology and Spiritual Knowledge
Vocational, educational and leisure programmes form a part of the general rehabilitation programme of inmates and includes the religious component. Part 14 of the PR regulates matters related to faith and religious practices (Malaysian Prison Department, 2016). An inmate must declare their religious denomination upon intake to inform the prison officer, who will treat them accordingly. The MPD offers religious or moral education to prisoners of every faith, and explicitly states its respect for Muslim as well as non-Muslim prisoners. Visits by
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religious personnel or members of religious associations, as well as access to religious texts, are granted to every inmate (Malaysian Prison Department, 2016).
Nationally, Malaysia has high awareness of religious radicalisation and terrorism, a factor in establishing the Security Offences and the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) in 2015, which contains a section related to detention and the possibility to hold potential security offenders in custody without trial for a certain period and in some cases even up to years through renewable appeal processes (Besant, 2016).
Malaysian militants support groups, which has become a greater threat on a national as well as international level. In some cases, radicalisation has been traced back to prison experiences where ideologies were shared (Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, 2016). As a result, Malaysia developed its own deradicalisation programme, under the main responsibility of the Royal Malaysian Police that brings an arrested suspect to a special Branch Department for Interrogation. Detainees undergo the deradicalisation programme which aims to change their radical ideology, seen to be caused by religious misinterpretation, through the Religious Rehabilitation Program which covers re-educational and rehabilitation aspects (Noor & Hayat, 2009). First, the re-education aspect focuses “on correcting political and religious misconceptions” through religious classes providing Islamic studies to detainees, and discussion and debates with Islamic clerics (Noor & Hayat, 2009; Besant, 2016). Second, the rehabilitation aspect consists of evaluating and monitoring released detainees and financially supporting the spouses and families of detainees (Noor & Hayat, 2009). In addition to family support, released detainees receive financial assistance to prevent recidivism for financial reasons and to reduce the negative effects of potential efforts to indoctrinate other family members (Besant, 2016; Aslam et al., 2016). Therefore, the Malaysian deradicalisation programme not only focuses on the re-education of militants but also supports families to guarantee “a good perspective and prevent misunderstanding towards the deradicalisation initiative” (Aslam et al., 2016).
However, in addition to the re-education and rehabilitation aspects, the Malaysian deradicalisation programme is also known for being an authoritative and coercive one, using beatings and “strong surveillance for monitoring rehabilitated prisoners after their release” (Speckhard, 2011, p. 42). These coercive measures using “fear and threats of harsh punishments are a key component of the Malaysian deradicalisation programme. The militants
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are beaten, tortured and subjected to long periods of solitary confinement in addition to other punishments” (Noor & Hayat, 2009, p. 25).
Although there are no official documents stating the success rate of this programme, Malaysian officials point to high success rates and international recognition of the programme (Povera, 2016). Once a detainee has gone through the programme and is released, post-release care, including job provision, counselling activities and visits from parole officers, are key factors in keeping the former prisoner disengaged from extremist groups (Jones, 2013). Thus, they still face some restriction and controls on their activities, and limits on their travel as well as contacts.
Finally, Malaysia also involves communities by means of awareness-raising measures aiming to train communities to recognise the early signs of radicalisation and to report those to authorities (Mogul, 2016). To do so, the Malaysian government organises events where former militants who underwent the deradicalisation programme speak to university students and preach against joining terrorist groups and also focuses on social media channels and other means of communication in the clampdown on the spread of terrorism (Mogul, 2016).
4.6.5. Reintegration
The parole system established under the MPD is one of two community-based treatment programmes, the other being the Community Service programme (Thailand Institute of Justice, 2015). Parole is considered a continuation of serving a sentence, where offenders are placed under the responsibility of parole officers, whose duties are regulated in Section 46J of the Prison Act. The parole system operates with 50 Parole Offices throughout the country to conduct home visits, employment visits, telephone check-ins, urine testing, and reporting (Thailand Institute of Justice, 2015). As mentioned before, the Parole and Community Service Division manages the Parole Management Information System, makes sure parole officers have the technical know-how to properly access the offender’s file and thereby realises the transition of responsibility from Prison Officer to Parole Officer (Speckhard, 2011).
The Community Service programme consists of: (i) the prison workforce, where prisoners do community work in collaboration with the local community; and (ii) community involvement within the rehabilitation procedures. The MPD considers the Community Service programme as one that raises awareness within the community, who share responsibility for maintaining
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peace and well-being in society (Malaysian Prison Department, 2012f). In this sense, the MPD offers “educational and crime prevention activity consisting of an exhibition and lectures by selected inmates who will share their life stories and experiences that led to their imprisonment as a lesson and example to the public” which it also calls on society to do voluntary work such as religious speeches, lectures and counselling for inmates, or to donate food, material or money for prisoners (Malaysian Prison Department, 2012f).
Along with programmes with community involvement, Malaysian courts also impose non- custodial sentences to facilitate reintegration, such as unconditional discharge, conditional discharge or a Good Behaviour Bond, and restitution to the victim, as well as compulsory attendance and community service (APCCA, 2013). Furthermore, the National Blue Ocean Strategy promotes efforts undertaken by government agencies to increase collaboration to optimize resources and thereby achieve greater results in preventing reoffending (APCCA, 2013).
In order rehabilitation programmes to have full effect, the return to society needs to be adequately planned so that released prisoners do not commit new offences, thereby reducing recidivism. Yet many prisoners have lost contact with their families and social stigma negatively affects their reintegration into the community. In 2010, the Malaysia Ministry of Home Affairs began implementing halfway houses, receiving released inmates and offering them monitoring and a safe place to help them to adjust to life in society (Sokial, 2013). Additionally, the MPD’s SAHABAT Club aims to support prisoners, their families and residents in general by promoting and fundraising for welfare and vocational programmes, and by raising awareness within society (MPD, n.d.). Alongside governmental efforts, former inmates also receive support from NGOs such as Prison Fellowship Malaysia, which offers aftercare by supporting former inmates with counselling and reconciliation programmes bringing together prisoners and victims of crime.
4.7. Conclusion
In conclusion, this chapter reveals that the four countries have different perspectives on the meaning of rehabilitation of offenders. Canada and Norway reveal a desistance-based perspective that shares the responsibility for the desistance process between the offenders on the one hand and society on the other. Risk assessment is not primarily used to protect society from the offenders but to enable appropriate treatment with a focus on rehabilitation and
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reintegration of offenders, with risk estimated to ensure that inmates serve their sentences in the lowest security level facility deemed appropriate for the specific risk the offender presents to society and fellow inmates. In Japan, effective rehabilitation is regarded as a means of preventing reoffending. As such, reintegration is not primarily seen as a responsibility of the state as a duty bearer to realise the offender’s rights, but rather the state is supposed to put more emphasis on order and safety of society. In Japan, it is the task of the offender not to relapse into crime, and society offers support and control measures. In this sense, risk assessment is primarily used to limit the possibilities of the offender to re-offend. A similar conclusion can be drawn from the case of Malaysia, where the available information led to an assessment that the offender is an individual which must pay back society to compensate for the damage that their crimes incur. The next chapter focuses on the rehabilitation approach in South Africa.
108 CHAPTER 5
OFFENDERS’ REHABILITATION APPROACH WITHIN THE SOUTH AFRICAN